LS 5603 Houdini

Krull, Kathleen. Houdini: World’s Greatest Mystery Man and Escape King. Ill. Eric Velasquez. New York: Walker & Company, 2005.

ISBN: 0-8027-8953-6

He was born in Budapest as Erik Weiss and grew up poor in Appleton, Wyoming. He ran away to New York when he was twelve years old and found his calling by reading about magic in used bookstores. At nineteen, he met the woman who would become his wife a performance partner, Bess. He practiced his tricks for years before performing in front of an audience. He is a self-made man with tricks up his sleeve. He is known for The Milk can Escape, The Metamorphosis, The Underwater Handcuff Release, and The Water Torture Cell. He is one of the most famous magicians the world has ever known. He was Houdini.

This book makes me want to know more about Houdini’s life. Krull’s terse descriptions of his life and Velasquez’s illustrations make this a great book to keep the young reader interested but lacks detail an advanced reader may want to know: it's fascinating that he did all of this, but who was he really? An interesting feature is the use of an announcer in the illustrations and text. He pulls back the red, yellow trimmed curtain and starts the book of with a poetic description of one of Houdini’s earliest tricks, The Milk Can Escape. The poetic announcer is interspersed throughout the book with other tricks Houdini made famous. A “Behind the Scenes” afterword concludes the book with some information on how he may have done some of his tricks as well as a bibliography that would point the curious reader to more information about the magician.

“Though together the main narrative and poetry barely skim the surface of Houdini's life, the card-trick contingent will find the combination accessible, and motivated children will take full advantage of the amplifying endnote and resource listing,” writes a reviewer for Booklist. Children may want to learn about more magicians after reading this book, Conjure Times: Black Magicians in America by Jim Haskins and Kathleen Benson and Magicians and Illusionists by Adam Wong are recommended. If they feel the urge to try a trick themselves, Amazing Magic Tricks by Dave Brown and Paul Reeve may do the trick!